Simone Oppen

Graduate Student

sao2126@columbia.edu

Interests

Greek drama

Greek historiography

Interactions between ancient Greece and the Near East

One of three sisters raised in a small town in northern California, Simone received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in 2009 (Classical Languages and Comparative Literature double major; Dance and Performance Studies minor). After working as a teacher at an Italian language immersion preschool in San Francisco for two years, she earned M.A. and M.Phil. degrees (both in Classics) from Columbia in 2012 and 2015.

Directing, co-directing, and performing Aeschylus and Euripides in the original language at U.C. Berkeley and Columbia brought Simone into this field and Greek drama continues to fascinate her. She is currently writing her dissertation on the Greek literary portrayal of Persian interactions with Greek sanctuaries during the Greco-Persian Wars. Thanks to additional training afforded by Fulbright Austria and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, her focus is on situating Aeschylus and Herodotus in their wider ancient Near Eastern and Greek contexts.

In her free time she enjoys watching live performances and teaching modern languages as a volunteer.